Military inquests

Unnecessary delay

This Wednesday at noon a small act of memorial will take place in the House of Commons. Tony Blair began it. Gordon Brown has continued it: the sad roll call of the week's dead from Iraq and Afghanistan. It is a moment for public recognition of the sacrifice of the armed forces. But this tribute sits awkwardly alongside the insensitivity with which the families of the dead have been treated over inquests.

Around 100 inquests remain unheard, partly because coroners have struggled to loosen the grip of the Ministry of Justice on the purse strings and partly because of the great number of cases. The government points out that most pending inquests relate to deaths that took place in the last year: but families must still wait, even if for a diminishing length of time.

It took several years for the Oxford coroner - who has been responsible for the military inquests held so far and has already held 43 this year - to secure the funds to appoint extra staff needed. In April ministers announced that they would lessen his load by allowing him to direct some of the work to other coroners, nearer the homes of the families involved. This will improve the situation and make inquests less trying for families, who have often had to travel far, partly at their own expense, to attend them. So will a further extension of funding promised by the government last week. But Wiltshire and Swindon coroners court, informed in March that it would become a new centre because bodies have begun to arrive at nearby RAF Lynham during runway work at Brize Norton, has still not received this extra money, even though it believes it will need to hire an extra coroner. Nor has the court yet been able to complete any military inquests this year.

It would be distasteful if this was just about money. But some are beginning to wonder whether other factors have added to the institutional obstruction that the families of the bereaved and the coroner have encountered. So-called friendly fire, of the sort that killed Stephen Allbutt and David Clarke in Iraq four years ago, does happen. Like most friendly-fire incidents, the coroner this month found it was the result of "a catalogue of misunderstandings and failures". That finding opens up many questions. There may be arguments for compensation, both for the families of the dead and the wounded survivors. Delay only makes the truth harder to obtain. So does being reticent about mistakes that need facing openly and honestly, however painful.

The least the politicians can do, along with their just recognition of the dead at the despatch box, is ensure that resources are available to cope with the consequences of Westminster's grim list of names.

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